I became a father for the first time Oct. 12, 1990, when my daughter Cierra was born. During this time, the San Antonio Brick Walk was formed, and a committee was selling bricks to pave the sidewalks along East Houston Street around the Majestic Theatre area. I placed an order for one brick for “Cierra Rae Garza” and received an official certificate presented Nov. 21, 1991, confirming that a brick had been engraved “and prominently placed for all to see along the historic sidewalks of Houston Street.” The certificate also mapped where the brick was located in the 200 block of East Houston Street.

My daughter, now living downtown, recently went to visit the brick only to find that it is nowhere to be found. Both she and I scoured the sidewalks, even looking in other sections to no avail. Maybe you can find the missing Cierra Rae Garza brick or what might be done to replace it?

René Garza

The San Antonio Brick Walk was associated with the 1988-1991 TriParty Improvements Project, a public/private cooperation that widened sidewalks, added more attractive street furniture and generally made the downtown streetscape more accessible and inviting to visitors.

The Brick Walk was “both an awareness campaign for the street reconstruction project and a fundraiser to purchase additional sidewalk trash receptacles beyond the original scope of the improvement project,” said Melissa Burnett, director of marketing and communications for Centro Alliance (formerly Downtown Owners Association).

The pavers used in the Brick Walk were made by Alamo Concrete Pavers, the company that supplied more than 4.5 million units for the 1990 repaving of 5 miles of streets in a 10-block area of downtown.

According to the company's website, www.alamopavers.net, this was the largest installation of concrete pavers in the United States. Only about 40,000 were engraved. The size of the pavers varies; those used on sidewalks are just over 2 or 3 inches thick.

Your family's brick was placed in a high-profile “activity zone,” denoting the entrance to the theater, which had reopened only a few years earlier after years of darkness and an extensive restoration led by Las Casas Foundation. Everyone who ordered an engraved paver was sent a locator map, identifying its placement by city block, side of the street and section. Your spot in Section 16 was one of two on either side of the theater at 224 E. Houston St., on the east side of its entrance, south side of the street.

Thanks to you and others who purchased personalized bricks, more than $600,000 was raised, Ericksen said. That paid for as many as 100 additional trash receptacles, Burnett said.

The bricks were removed several years ago, says Ben E. Brewer III, former president of the Brick Walk committee, now executive vice president for business operations of Centro Alliance, and they weren't put back where they were placed originally.

“When a city contractor did repairs in front of the Majestic, they scrambled many and lost some of the bricks despite our warnings to keep track of the 'name-pavers,'” Brewer said. “A few years ago, we went out and did an inventory of the (new) brick locations.”

Fortunately, yours is not among the missing. Centro staffer Janie Castillo found it in front of Toscana Ristorante, 301 E. Houston St., on the north side of the street, in a section with about 100 other engraved bricks.

“We can't always guarantee that we can find a brick,” said Brewer, since some were lost altogether, “but in this case we did.”

As the original certificate said, your brick “has been prominently placed for all to see along the historic sidewalks of Houston Street.” It just moved while you weren't looking.